Box Score The Case Western Reserve University women's basketball team suffered a 86-62 loss to the 10th-ranked New York University Violets in Brooklyn, New York on Friday night.
With the loss, the Spartans dropped to 5-8 on the year and to 0-2 in University Athletic Association play, while NYU improved to 11-0 overall and to 2-0 in conference play following the victory.
Sophomore forward Kayla Characklis led all CWRU players with 14 points on a six-of-11 shooting effort and nine rebounds. Junior guard/ forward Isabella Mills added 12 points, five rebounds, six steals and a block, and senior guard/ forward Abbey Lawrence added 12 points.
CWRU shot the ball well in the first half, connecting on five-of-10 attempts from behind the three-point line and 14-of-31 (45.2%) of their shots overall. However, the Violets were able to out rebound the Spartans 29-18 overall in the opening half, including a 15-4 edge in offensive rebounds that resulted in a 14-4 edge for the Violets in second chance points. The two teams went back-and forth in the first period, but NYU would close the frame with an 18-14 lead over CWRU. The Violets added some distance with a 9-0 run over the first two minutes of the second quarter that extended their lead to 27-14. The Spartans battled back, trimming NYU's lead down to seven, 32-25, on a three by Lawrence with 3:51 to play in the half. The Violets lead would climb back to 13 by the closing minute of the period, before a three by sophomore guard Margaret Terry in the final seconds cut NYU's lead to 10, 45-35, by halftime.
However, CWRU would not pull back within single digits for the remainder of the game. NYU led by as many as 24 in the third period, taking a 64-40 lead with 2:57 left in the frame, before the Spartans closed out the third on a 7-0 run. An and-one by Lawrence capped the CWRU run at 10-0 and cut the Violets' lead to 64-50 with 9:02 to play in the game, and after a basket by NYU, junior guard Savannah Glimpse knocked down a three to trim the deficit to 13 points with 8:32 left. But, NYU pulled away from there, and would build its lead back to a game-high 24 points in the closing minute of play.
CWRU finished the game shooting 36.9% (24-of-65) overall and 38.1% (eight-of-21) from three-point range.
The Spartans will wrap-up their four-game road trip on Sunday, January 16, as the team will travel to Waltham, Massachusetts to face Brandeis University. With the men's game that was scheduled for earlier in the day postponed, tip-off for Sunday's women's contest has been moved up to 1:00 p.m.
